Compost 101: How to Get Started
You always look for new ways to help your plants and flowers grow, but have you considered how your table scraps might help? Composting takes waste from leftover pieces of fruits, veggies and other foods and turns it into organic matter, which enriches your garden soil with the nutrients it needs. If you’re new to the idea or simply need to upgrade your setup, Tractor Supply offers a wide range of composting essentials to help you get started.
What Is Composting?
Don’t let your food trash go to waste! Composting allows you to recycle plant and food waste and create nutrient-rich soil for your garden. Once you start using compost in your soil, you might notice your plants growing stronger and becoming more resistant to common diseases. This soil also tends to hold moisture better than some alternatives, so you spend less time watering your garden and can get better results.
You already have a green thumb, so chances are you value the stunning plant life all around you. That’s another reason to consider composting – it helps keep food waste out of landfills where it can contribute to harmful methane gas emissions.
What Do I Need to Start Composting?
As with waste disposal and recycling, you need a designated compost bin. Many people have a small compost bin inside the home and another, larger bin or pile outside. Kitchen compost bins are designed for countertops and usually only hold about a gallon. You don’t do the composting in these containers; they’re only for holding scraps until you can bring them outside. Biodegradable compost bags contain scraps, so all you need to do is take out the bag and dump it in your outdoor bin.
Since your compost bin contains trash, you might worry about the smell lingering in your kitchen until it’s time to bring waste outside. That’s why many bins have removable charcoal compost filters that help block odors.
For outdoor compost bins, set them up in areas away from your home in an area that’s accessible but not easily disturbed. Compost also requires partial shade, so the best spot is often the back corner of the yard or alongside a shed.
You don’t want hungry critters getting into your compost or odors from food waste affecting your backyard, so consider the right closure type for your bin, such as lids and latches that offer convenience and doors and pull-over styles ideal for larger applications. Although secure closure is vital, you also want to ensure proper airflow for successful composting, so remove any debris that might block air slits.
Bins aren’t the only way to compost; you might opt for a composting pile. This is the preferred approach for many homeowners, as piles don’t require as much composting experience or a large amount of organic material to get started. Ensure the area is level and can drain well for compost to retain moisture (but not get too wet). Between the dirt, food scraps and other organic waste and in your compost pile, it should be at least three feet high but no taller than five feet high.
What’s the Right Way to Compost?
There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong approach – it depends on how quickly you want to compost organic materials, how much space you have and the resources you want to put into composting. The main types of composting are:
Cold Composting
Cold – or passive – composting involves putting plant and food scraps into the bin and letting nature do the rest. Fungi and bacteria break down the organic material over time, and with regular turning using rakes or forks, you’ll get compost to add to your soil in anywhere from six months to two years.
Hot Composting
Six months or more might seem too long to wait for compost, so you can speed the process up with hot composting. Food and plant scraps decay more quickly with additional heat, providing you with compost in much less time, sometimes as fast as one month.
Hot composting will require more work than the cold approach. It’s all about maintaining the right balance of waste materials, temperature and moisture. Waste needs to stay between 110°F and 160°F to decay at a faster rate, ideally at around 140°F, and compost thermometers can help you monitor temperature.
Aeration also ensures compost stays at the right moisture level. Using an aerator tool, mix the compost every three to four weeks and check moisture levels periodically. If it gets too wet, certain microbes may overtake composting and almost stop decomposition entirely, but if it’s too dry, microbial activity decreases.
Simply watering compost with a garden hose can make a dry pile moist, making sure water reaches through to the bottom. If the compost is too wet, put high-carbon material into the compost pile, such as shredded bits of newspaper, to soak up the extra moisture. When rainy weather is in the forecast, grab a tarp to cover the compost until it passes over.
Worm Composting
Worms help microorganisms decompose waste with this approach, also called vermicomposting. These invertebrates naturally go after compost piles, but you can also buy a couple pounds of worms and put them to work in a bin. Just two pounds of worms eat about a pound of food waste in a day, giving you compost in less than a week. The best part? Worms are odorless, so even if you keep your compost bin close to the house, it won’t cause a bothersome smell.
What Type of Compost Bin Is Best?
If you want to compost but also keep your backyard looking neat, enclosed, plastic compost bins are an ideal solution. They retain heat and moisture well and keep pests from eating food waste, and most importantly, they tend to compost faster than open containers. Wooden compost bins have an opening – either on the top or one side – and might attract critters so keep them further from your home.
Lawn tools such as pitchforks help you stir scraps in a regular bin or pile, but you won’t need those with tumbling compost bins. They feature a mechanism that rotates to provide oxygen for waste to decompose. Tumbling composters are closed and elevated on legs, helping keep moisture and heat in and pests away, and you can start to see compost in just a few weeks.
What Kinds of Plant and Food Waste Can You Compost?
You won’t be able to put every scrap from meal prep into your compost bin, but what you can compost will help to reduce your waste. Compost properly according to these guidelines:
Organic Materials to Compost
- Fruit peels and cores
- Nutshells
- Crushed eggshells
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Juice pulp
- Tea leaves and bags
- Paper plates and paper food containers (check labels to ensure they’re compostable)
- Vegetable peels and unusable parts
Items You Should NOT Compost*
- Meat scraps
- Dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt and similar foods)
- Diseased plants
- Pet waste
*At-home composting usually doesn’t generate enough heat to decompose these materials or eliminate pathogens, and they might attract pests.
Get Composting with Help from Tractor Supply
Enrich your plants with compost soil while doing your part to reduce waste and help protect this great, big garden we call Earth. For composting supplies and more, trust our wide selection of lawn maintenance, plant care and fertilizer products. Visit your local Tractor Supply store today or shop online.